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So perhaps it wasn’t the wisest move to pick a co-host for the
MuchMusic Video Awards
whose first language isn’t English.

For all the pre-show hype about Much landing South Korean pop star PSY as one of the emcees for Sunday night’s MMVA broadcast from the network’s Queen West headquarters, the “
Gangnam Style
” hitmaker was conspicuously absent from most of the show.

He performed his signature hit and its accompanying “horsey” dance before the squealing hordes thronging the Much courtyard and the street outside to open the ceremony, along with a run at the follow-up single, “
Gentleman
,” later on in the broadcast, but PSY’s “hosting” presence turned out to be fairly small — and fairly awkward — on the whole. His sense of humour comes through in the videos and came through again last night in a goofy midshow dance routine (“I can dance to anything. DJ, hit me whatever you got!”) to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” but perhaps PSY isn’t quite ready for a late-night talk show yet. Best leave the talking to his hips.

Oh, well. PSY got an award for his travels and troubles, at least. “Gangnam Style,” which has logged 1.5 billion YouTube hits since its release a year ago, was the predictable winner of the 2013 MMVA for Viral Video of the Year.

That was it for PSY, though. The big winners at the MMVAs this year were a couple of rappers: Halifax MC Classified — whose RT!-directed clip for “
Inner Ninja
,” a collaboration with East Coast folkie David Myles — picked up both Video of the Year and the confusingly named MuchFact Video of the Year — and Toronto-bred hip-hop superstar Drake.

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“
Started From the Bottom
” was good enough to get Director X a Director of the Year video, while he and Drake also shared in the Hip-Hop Video of the Year trophy. Drake did make a surprise appearance to add a little extra wattage to its star power.

South Korean singer PSY performs at the 2013 Much Music Video Awards in Toronto on Sunday. (Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

There was a lot of star power to go around at the MMVAs this year, although it definitely helped to be young enough to know or care what a Janoskian is to appreciate it.

“
Heart Attack
” hitmaker Demi Lovato performed, Taylor Swift presented. Avril Lavigne performed and sported a spiked headband next to husband-to-be Chad Kroeger on the red carpet. Six-time nominees Marianas Trench were a hit with probably the only audience in the world that gives a rat’s ass about their music. A bunch of fresh-faced actors from teen-friendly shows such as
Teen Wolf
and
Pretty Little Liars
that run on MuchMusic’s parent company, CTV, made the rounds with the pop stars. The kids seemed pretty excited, especially when the Janoskians, whoever they are, took their shirts and pants off. The members of Marianas Trench took their pants off while performing, too. Maybe it’s a new thing.

In the grand MMVA tradition of making sure pretty much everyone kind enough to show up for the festivities gets an award, Lavigne and Marianas Trench and Lovato all got a trophy apiece. Lavigne took International Video of the Year by a Canadian, for “Here’s to Never Growing Up,” Marianas Trench got Pop Video of the Year for “Desperate Measures” and Lovato was awarded International Video of the Year-Artist for “Heart Attack.”

Her acceptance speech was typical of the level of discourse that dominated the evening.

“I’m so happy,” she told the crowd. “I’m so happy. This is amazing. I’m so happy. This is amazing.”

Ah, well, we don’t go look to our pop stars for rocket science, do we? And it was nice amidst the fluff to see a few organically grown talents getting some recognition — long-lived Toronto punks Billy Talent taking Post-Production of the Year for “Surprise Surprise” or Serena Ryder scoring Rock/Alternative Video of the Year for the ubiquitous “Stompa.” Classified, too, is a dude who’s put in a lot of time to become a somewhat unlikely MuchMusic favourite. So there’s some balance to the universe, after all.

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